Palestine Authority declares Sharon guilty of crimes against humanity

The Palestine Authority has declared that Israeli prime Minister Ariel Sharon is guilty of crimes against humanity after the raid on Monday with F-16 jets against civilian targets, which killed a Palestinian terrorist and ten children. The incident is going to be reported to the International Criminal Court.

United nations secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the attack, stating that “Israel has the legal and moral responsibility to take all measures possible to avoid the loss of innocent lives. Clearly, it did not fulfil this duty in using a missile against a residential building”.

This condemnation by Kofi Annan was followed on Tuesday afternoon by president George Bush, whose spokesperson Ari Fleischer declared that Israel had already been warned to be careful about the consequences of its actions and that strafing innocent civilians did nothing towards creating a climate of peace.

The attack came at a moment when Hamas, the Palestinian organisation which has perpetrated numerous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, was beginning to issue declarations that the suicide bombings would end, if the Israeli Defence Force withdrew from the positions it occupied recently in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The European Union also condemned this attack, pointing out that in the past it had issued declarations against “illegal killings” by the IDF and that “Neither these actions, nor others, which cause indiscriminate harm to civilians, will bring security to the people of Israel”.

Ariel Sharon’s declarations that the operation was a great success have caused outrage in the international press. From the military point of view, one of Israel’s most wanted terrorists was killed but in 2002, no state of law takes out a terrorist along with his wife and children, and neighbouring families.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru